Generation 00: Cultural Practices before the Middle East Uprisings

Details:

What role did artists and artistic production have in the political upheaval of the Arab Spring and related social and political movements? Northwestern University will expand this question in conversation with Abdellah Karroum, director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar. The colloquium Generation 00: Cultural Practices before the Middle East Uprisings will offer a series of talks examining artistic production during the decade preceding the uprisings in Tunisia and the Arab World. This multidisciplinary day of conversation will expand on Karroum's work on a “generation 00” of artists working as citizens who produced works opposing and critically reading the political and social situations of the early 21st Century.

The colloquium is free and open to the public, to join for any or all of the day’s sessions. All sessions will be moderated by S. Hollis Clayson, Professor of Art History and Bergen Evans Professor in the Humanities.

The colloquium and Abdellah Karroum's visit to Northwestern University are presented in partnership between the Block Museum of Art, the Department of Art History and the Program in Middle East and North African Studies (MENA) with the support of the Buffett Institute for Global Studies and the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities.

• 10AM-11AM: Presentation by Abdellah Karroum, introduced by Brian Edwards, Crown Professor in Middle East Studies
• 11AM-12PM: Hannah Feldman, Associate Professor of Art History - “‘There was and there were not’: What was Beirut? The Years between the Wars (1990-2006)” and Shayna Mei Silverstein, Assistant Professor of Communications -“Cultural Production in the Capital: Creativity, Neoliberalism, and the 2008 Damascus Arab Capital of Culture Festival”
• 12PM - Lunch
• 1PM – 2PM: Presentation by Hamid Naficy, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor in Communication - "Iranian Postrevolution Cinema: From Iconoclasm to Global Cinema" and Jessica Winegar, Associate Professor of Anthropology. - “Art for Nation, Art for God: The Rise of Religious Contemporary Art Practices in Cairo”
• 2PM-3PM: Emma Chubb, PhD Candidate in Art History - “Generation 00: Notes from Morocco” and Brian Edwards, Crown Professor in Middle East Studies -“Lit Generation 00: Cairo Comics, Cyberpunk, and Casablanca Noir

Contact The Block Museum of Art for more information: (847) 491-4000 or email us at block-museum@northwestern.edu